WWE TLC 2014 Results: Biggest Highlights and Low Points
The results are in for the 2014 TLC pay-per-view, on which there was immense pressure to surpass the success of NXT TakeOver: R Evolution.
This was also the last chance for WWE to make a strong impression to end the year before the Road to WrestleMania kicks into gear in the build to the Royal Rumble event.
Once again, no WWE World Heavyweight Championship match was on the card. Nor were several of the biggest names in the company who have been absent for quite some time.
To help counteract what was missing, WWE upgraded the event from TLC to Tables, Ladders, Chairs and Stairs and seemed to put a lot of faith in the younger talent grabbing those elusive brass rings.
Was the event enough to justify setting aside four hours and $9.99?
Did the PPV year end with bangs and fireworks or a bunch of whimpers and duds?
Let's break down the highlights and the low points of the night, presented in order of appearance on the card.
Low Point: The New Day vs. Gold and Stardust
1 of 9
The New Day hasn't gotten off to a good start since making its debut, and unfortunately, this match did nothing to change its course.
Though it wasn't horrible by any means, it was nothing remotely special.
Kofi Kingston, Big E and Xavier Woods were not in the best position on the roster when they teamed up to form this stable.
Now that they've had a couple chances to perform, the lack of a response from the crowd is deafening.
Is it a lack of promos to set up their characters? Or do their characters just not resonate with the audience?
For whatever reason, they are struggling, and having a killer performance to start TLC could have done wonders to get things back on track.
Every man involved in this match has talent, but the entire segment was as generic as it could possibly be.
By the end of this show, most people had probably forgotten about it existing in the first place.
Certainly, nobody will be talking about anything that happened in this match for the rest of the week, and The New Day can't afford to be forgotten so easily.
These guys are struggling and in need of some great strides to help fix the errors that have taken place as of late, but if anything, this match reiterated that they're nothing to invest in.
Highlight: Intercontinental Championship Ladder Match
2 of 9
While it's a far cry to say that he was right in that it would be "the best damn thing [he's] ever done" in the ring, it was good to see Dolph Ziggler regain the Intercontinental Championship.
There was always a risk that WWE would lose track of him and drop the ball with his push over the next few months if he had not had a title around his waist.
Luke Harper is talented and has yet again proved that he's much more agile than expected for a man his size.
Now that Ziggler is the champion again, he has an opportunity to make good on his promises to reinvigorate the Intercontinental Championship to the prestige it had many years ago.
Harper has a future, but he's in need of boost to his character before he's able to be held responsible for carrying such an important title.
After a few good smashes in this match, the midcard title is back where it belongs—around the waist of someone who will do it justice.
Low Point: Disqualification Endings in Title Matches
3 of 9
Matches on a pay-per-view should very rarely end in a disqualification, so the ending to this match severely hurt its value.
Any time this happens, it's tough to imagine the audience being able to distinguish what's so different between this and what is presented to them on Raw or SmackDown.
If you do similar matches (or even the same matches) on the television shows and you market the pay-per-views as being special, you can't book it in a similar fashion.
Was it just to stall and have this feud drag on for the next six weeks until the Royal Rumble?
In that case, WWE should put the burden on themselves to think of something else to do instead of taking the lazy way out.
Was it to try to give the fans a reason to boo the Miz and Damien Mizdow and circumvent the cheers Mizdow is getting the team?
If so, that is counterproductive, as WWE is continually beating the message into our heads that any response is a good response and it's okay that people boo John Cena.
These four men are talented and could have done more than what ended up being nothing more than something you can see on every episode of Monday Night Raw.
Outside of a couple funny spots from Mizdow and a nice submission move from the Usos, there was nothing here that could be considered special.
Highlight: Erick Rowan vs. Big Show
4 of 9
WWE continually advertised this event as their version of a demolition derby, and this match was one of the few that really illustrated that concept to a T.
There was a good chance this could have ended up being really slow and uneventful, but Big Show and Erick Rowan found a way to have fun with a ridiculous idea.
A Steel Stairs match sounds stupidly flawed at first, yet these lumbering brutes smashed into each other and channeled their inner monster trucks in the process.
They were working with a very limited amount of options as far as what they could safely do to be entertaining with the steps, which shouldn't be forgotten when reviewing this match.
Rowan put up a good fight against the veteran, showing that he may not be someone to write off any time soon.
This point was illustrated even more by having Big Show use the steps to aid in his pinfall victory, since his knockout punch would likely have not been enough to hold the big man down.
Perhaps WWE will have to permanently change the name of this event to Tables, Ladders, Chairs and Stairs to keep the trend going.
Highlight: John Cena vs. Seth Rollins
5 of 9
When John Cena goes into a match with championship implications, it's difficult for WWE to figure out a way to make it interesting, considering everyone expects him to win well in advance.
Although it took a while to get started, once the pace picked up, this match did its job.
Let's face it, this was just a stall because Brock Lesnar isn't there. If anybody else were holding the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, there's no way this match takes place.
If you set that aside and play dumb, suspend your disbelief and just go with WWE in ignoring the fact that the champion has done nothing in months, then you likely enjoyed this.
Almost any time WWE does a false finish of sorts, the rest of what follows ends up being interesting.
Seeing Roman Reigns return to make the save went over well with the crowd—mission accomplished.
It should be no surprise that Cena is still going into the 2015 Royal Rumble as the challenger for the title, but at least the journey getting to the same spot that we were a month ago wasn't a bore.
Low Point: Nikki Bella vs. AJ Lee
6 of 9
Charlotte and Sasha Banks showed at NXT TakeOver: R Evolution that there are Divas in WWE who are talented and can put on a good, solid match if given a chance.
Taking that into account, there's no reason why AJ Lee—one of the best Divas in the ring that WWE has had in a long time—and current champion Nikki Bella should not have had just as good of a match, if not better.
Despite this fact, it simply didn't happen.
If this was Lee's last match, then it is a shame it wasn't something memorable.
Low Point: Ryback vs. Kane
7 of 9
Considering how many limitations are put in place when it comes to the use of chairs, a match like this doesn't have much room to work with.
It can get very tiresome watching two people conveniently position themselves in a way to allow their opponent to hit them in the back repeatedly.
When perhaps the best spot of the entire match was simply Kane throwing a chair at Ryback's face, that's not a big compliment.
Ryback has a lot to offer and Kane is a legend, but they were both doomed once this stipulation was attached to their bout.
If you're in the mood for some good action with chairs, you're better off watching some old footage on the WWE Network instead.
Low Point: Rusev vs. Jack Swagger
8 of 9
Do you remember that time when someone challenged Rusev and thought they could beat him, but when it came time to the match itself, they stood no chance of ever winning?
Oh, that's right. That's every single Rusev match he's had this year, including this one.
Poor Jack Swagger at least was able to work on Rusev's legs for a bit to give the audience some glimmer of hope that he could put the Bulgarian Brute in the Patriot Lock, but that's about it.
After a couple Accolades and some kicks, this ended up following the Rusev match template.
Either this is all that Rusev can do and the booking has to be limited to repeat itself out of necessity or the powers that be aren't actually creative enough to think outside the box and let him have a different fight once in a while.
At this point, if you've seen a single match with Rusev in 2014, you've seen them all, so why bother paying any attention to what he does until WrestleMania?
Highlight: Dean Ambrose vs. Bray Wyatt
9 of 9
For everything this match wasn't at Survivor Series, these two were justified being the main event of the night.
It's always best to leave the most brutal match for last so that nothing else looks tame by comparison afterward.
If you happen to like the idea of Dean Ambrose doing an elbow drop from a ladder to put Bray Wyatt through a table, then you're in luck, as that spot alone happened quite a bit in this match.
Anybody who did not consider Ambrose to be the torchbearer for the hardcore-brawler game on today's roster beforehand will have to rethink their perspective after seeing this.
This was by no means the most brutal match in TLC history or anything remotely close, but in a pay-per-view that was pretty lackluster, it's a highlight in comparison to much of the rest of the card.
Wyatt looks better for having won this match and Ambrose doesn't look any worse than before, despite losing.
All in all, that can be considered a win.
What did you think of TLC? Was it a good way to end the year or did it let you down?
Tell us your thoughts in the comments section below!
Anthony Mango is the owner-operator of the wrestling website Smark Out Moment as well as the host of its podcast show Smack Talk on YouTube, iTunes and Stitcher. You can follow him on Facebook and elsewhere for more.
.jpg?w=600 "Could Leafs Trade for McDavid in 2027? 🤔")
.jpeg?w=600 "Updated Stanley Cup Playoffs Bracket")
